Don’t please everyone
I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up but it seems like the success of Bravely Default and failure of Lighting Returns may actually have got through to Square Enix. I read this story here, apparently from a Japanese newspaper where the new boss of the company seems to be saying exactly what we fans have been talking about for years.

Stuff like this is just music to my ears: ‘In the past, when we developed console games with a worldwide premise, we lost our focus, and not only did they end up being games that weren’t for the Japanese, but they ended up being incomplete titles that weren’t even fit for a global audience’.

Basically what he’s saying is that by trying to appeal to everyone they ended up appealing to no-one and that proper Japanese role-players still have an audience, it’s just the bland hybrid that Final Fantasy has become that’s the problem. He even goes as far as to say Hitman Absolution (which I liked) was a disappointment for the same reason.

Could this be the first Japanese publisher to ‘get it’? Assuming he follows through on all this I just hope it doesn’t take too long for this new approach to actually result in some new games.Coal

Should’ve been final
I was wondering if there was anybody who could advise me in GameCentral’s world? I bought my son a Wii last year second-hand and all that. Long story short, it wasn’t set up for a long time and now when we have come to re et it up we have problems. One remote doesn’t work, nothing happens with batteries in them so fair enough we can replace that.

But when we put a game on like Mario Kart, the car doesn’t turn with the other remote. The remote is picking up movement as per the menu system but once you play the game you can’t control Mario at all. What is the issue and is there any quick fix to this? Tried resetting stuff and all that and nothing has worked. Even tried to do the Nintendo tap on the ground technique and nothing!

On another note, how good is Final Fantasy X? I mean, I played it all those years ago and enjoyed it but fast forward to last week it seems to be as good a game this time round as it was back then. Dare I say it is as good a game on some fronts as any other role-playing that is out for current consoles.

I will echo the fact Final Fantasy XIII compared to this game is a terrible mess of little ideas, with no real execution. Personally Final Fantasy X was the pinnacle of the series, not the best one but certainly the highest point they could go with it.Sacred_Innocence (PSN ID)

GC: It sounds like both remotes are broken, are you able to borrow or buy another to test it?

Different goal
RE: last weekend’s reader’s feature on Dark Souls II being worse than Dark Souls. I wouldn’t debate that the writer’s opinions are wrong, he’s perfectly entitled to them, however it does seem to me that people who play these games are split into two types.

The type who play for the single-player experience, hoping to explore amazing environments and demand a story verses the type who play to build a character and participate in player vs player. In the latter Dark Souls II surpasses both its predecessors and I feel that was From Software’s main goal from the beginning.Matthew O’Connell

Indie underdog
I recently bought Hotline Miami for PS Vita in the PSN sale and it truly is a fantastic game. Really tough but is similar to Dark Souls in that you never get frustrated because you know where you went wrong.

Best of all though is the soundtrack which is perhaps my favourite ever and Hotline Miami 2’s is supposed to be even better. The Vita has become my indie machine with my faves being Thomas Was Alone and Hotline Miami. I’m now of the opinion that the Vita is the most underrated console of all-time.Kurt Lewin

Gone forever
Some interesting comments on the future of Castlevania, GC. I think Lords Of Shadow was Konami’s big chance to make a go of it, but after a promising start I think they’ve flopped hard this time and there’s probably no coming back. Too few people know the series and those that do probably associate it with bad games now as much as they do good ones.

That’s the problem with all these games really. Contra’s just a third person shooter really and although it was amazing at the time I don’t see what it would be nowadays to distinguish itself from things like Gears Of War. Konami and others have really dropped the ball on all this. Given their experience in the ’80s and ’90s it should’ve been a smooth transition for them into the modern era. But they’ve just let the years rush by now and now once great names are worth almost nothing.

It’s a shame because Metal Gear Solid V shows they can still compete (controversy over just being a demo notwithstanding) but they just don’t seem willing to branch out. I mean how hard would it have been to turn Ground Zeroes into a straight shooter with a different story? Not much from a technology point of view I reckon.Tolly

Soul farmer
Firstly, I can safely say Dark Souls II is not easier, repeated deaths have you at half HP all through, human effigies cannot be farmed like the rats for humanities (as far as I know). To start with I thought the bosses were pretty easy, so you have to use them wisely.

I think I like the ability to travel straight off the bat. I have found a great way of farming souls once you get to the Iron Keep, just whack down the soapstone, summoned virtually straight away, even if you don’t beat the boss you are looking at 10,000 souls per go. Also, it gives you insight into the Iron Keep following others. I amassed 107,000 souls this afternoon just being summoned, praise the sun.zombiekicker (PSN ID)

Send in the clones
Count me amongst the group that is not buying into Assassin’s Creed Unity. I used to really like the series but the infinite wave of sequels has just worn away at my interest year by year. With Black Flag basically I realised that the only thing I like about it is the historical setting. Everything is bad from the fighting and platforming to the plot and most of the characters. All of that has to change for the new game to interest me and I’ve got about as much confidence in that happening as I have of there not being a new Call Of Duty this year.

What surprises me about Assassin’s Creed though is that there are no clones or copycats. When you consider setting a game in a certain time period doesn’t need any licence or anything you’d think companies would be jumping at the chance to release games set in some of the more obvious periods (the French Revolution’s been rumoured for years). But no. The one time companies copying each other could’ve been good for gamers is the one time they don’t do it. And now they’ll just wait out Assassin’s Creed becoming less and less popular and when Ubisoft finally give up on they’ll use that as an excuse not to make anything similar. Arrghh!Trent Bamor

Lightgun VR
I don’t want to labour the point, but here’s a link to an article with Brendan Iribe of Oculus VR where he discusses exactly what I was talking about. In the second question he states that first person shooters are not a natural fit for VR. And I’m sure I’ve seen Palmer Luckey saying the same thing before. I don’t think this kind of reaction is isolated.

The experiences that are going to work in VR are going to be the ones that most convince you you’re in the game. You’re not going to get that with a shooter if you’re not running around yourself. But you’ll get it from a vehicle-based Mad Max style game where you and a friend are alternating driving and firing a machine gun from the roof against other teams. I think experiences like that are more likely to be the bread and butter of VR.Thewearehere (PSN ID)

GC: Labour away, you’re raising some important points. A lot of these comments are a complete surprise to us, based on what we’ve seen and experienced of Oculus Rift so far – including the early support from developers. It’s going to be very interesting to see what the first wave of dedicated games are like, and how many first person ports there really are.

Inbox also-rans
RE: rkb_monkey boy. Far be it from me to tell you what to do but I’d save your money and concentrate on your epic-sounding backlog. There’s nothing out on PlayStation 4 yet that I’d call an essential buy and there won’t be until the autumn at least. I wish I’d have had more willpower and waited a year before making the jump to next gen.dyniner(PSN ID)

I happened to be reading Friday evening’s Inbox just as we pulled into a retail park car park replete with an Argos (I wasn’t driving!), so Tim Fitches’ e-mail about the Rhythm Thief & The Emperor’s Treasure bargain couldn’t have been more timely. Thanks!FoximusPrime81 (gamertag/Twitter)

This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Cranston, who asks what you would like your favourite franchise to be like in the next gen.

With long-running series such as Assassin’s Creed and Batman: Arkham announcing their first next gen-only iterations we want to know what you hope to see from new entries in existing series. Obviously better graphics, but what specific new features and elements do you want from sequels appearing on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U?

Are you exciting about those games that have already been announced and are things panning out the way you expected before the new consoles launched? How likely do you think it is that your ideal version of the game will turn out that way, and if it doesn’t do you think that will be because of technical limitations or marketing concerns?